


The Start of Something New

by dearzoemurphy



Category: Dear Evan Hansen - Pasek & Paul/Levenson
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Gen, Karaoke, OT4 Friendship, Post canon, alcohol use, everyone's a little drunk, karaoke bar shenanigans, yes the title is about high school musical it's important later
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-18
Updated: 2018-07-18
Packaged: 2019-06-12 07:47:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15335199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dearzoemurphy/pseuds/dearzoemurphy
Summary: Evan, Zoe, Alana, and Jared end up at a karaoke bar late into the night, and friendships are tested as questionable decisions are made.Really though, it's just them getting drunk and singing karaoke. Set post-canon when they're all of legal drinking age, and also in a universe where all eventually reconciled and became good friends again.





	The Start of Something New

**Author's Note:**

> This concept has been rattling around in my brain for a while, and it finally found its way out!! I hope you all enjoy this fun little excursion for our favorite little cinnamon rolls.

“C’mon guys, let's just go in for a few minutes, see some idiots sing some bad songs, and maybe one of you will get drunk enough to get on stage yourself,” Jared suggested hopefully, gesturing towards the karaoke bar in front of the group.

“I don't know, we should-” Alana started.

“Sounds good to me. I need to see you singing, Jared,” Zoe interrupted.

“Works for me,” he replied, shrugging.

“Evan?! Are you gonna stop this?” Alana asked, exasperated.

The boy in question shrugged. “I mean, I guess it could be entertaining. Especially if Jared is singing,” he said simply.

Alana sighed and buried her head in her hands. “Why me? Why now?” she grumbled.

Jared clapped her on the shoulder and began steering her into the bar. “Chin up, Alana, you're about to witness some of the best performances of your life,” he said as they crossed the threshold into the bar.

Evan was about to follow them, but was stopped by Zoe reaching out and clinging to his arm. “Evanevanevan, I'm already like, three drinks in, so promise you won't let me sign up for anything if I have any more,” she said, shaking him back and forth.

He chuckled. “Alright, I'll do my best,” he said, attempting to move again, but was once more held back by his girlfriend.

“Noooo, I need you to promise, babe. Keep me from going up there, even if Jared tries to get me drunker and push me up there,” she prodded, nudging her shoulder into his side.

“Okay! Uh, I promise,” her boyfriend said, showing signs of slight stress.

“Yay! We should make sure we get to see Jared sing, though,” Zoe said, as if she'd just had the greatest idea in the world, despite having already said it earlier.

Evan smiled and took her hand in his as they finally crossed into the bar. “We should. I can go sign him up for It’s Raining Men right now if you want,” he said, laughing softly.

Zoe’s eyes widened and her expression became suddenly solemn. “Do it, babe, and I'll love you forever,” she said with complete seriousness, tugging on his arm.

Her boyfriend feigned being offended. “I thought you were going to love me forever anyway,” he said with mock surprise.

“Well yeah, but I'll love you forever for forever. I’ll love you a million times more than forever,” Zoe rambled.

Evan laughed. “Well, okay then, I'll go sign him up,” he said, leaning down to kiss Zoe on the temple, squeezing her hand and going off to the sign up table. Zoe grinned and wandered over to Jared and Alana at the bar.

“No! I can't sing!” Alana was protesting.

“Won't sing, not can't sing, darling,” Jared rebutted, wagging a finger back and forth.

“God, I haven't had enough alcohol to deal with this…” Alana mumbled, rubbing her temples.

“Is Alana singing something?” Zoe asked excitedly.

“Yes, yes she is,” Jared said, grinning devilishly.

“No! You couldn't pay me enough to get up there,” the girl in question protested.

Jared began to dig around in his pockets. “Let's see, I have about…twenty seven cents, three buttons, a couple sticks of gum, and a Hello Kitty hair clip, is that enough?” he asked, laying out the treasures on the bar.

“Hell n- wait, where did the hair clip come from?” Alana asked, bewildered.

“Jared likes dressing up like a kawaii princess on the weekends,” Zoe said absentmindedly while ordering a drink.

Evan appeared out of the crowd and sidled up next to his girlfriend. “It's done,” he whispered in her ear, placing a small kiss on the spot to avoid suspicion from their friends.

Zoe smirked like she held the key to destroy entire civilizations. “You're the best, babe. Want a drink?” she asked, kissing him back on the jaw.

“No thanks, I'm driving tonight, remember?” he replied.

“Ah, right. Darn it. I was hoping I could get you drunk enough to go up there,” Zoe said, disappointed.

Evan snorted. “I mean, I guess I'll go up and sing something with you if you want, but that's it,” he said firmly.

“What are you two murmuring about?” Jared asked, appearing out of thin air.

“You'll find out soon enough,” Zoe said matter-of-factly, picking up the drink that a bartender had just placed in front of her and taking a big sip.

“What do you mean?” the bespectacled man asked in return.

“You'll see,” Zoe answered cryptically, swirling her drink.

“Ugh, I need another drink,” Jared grumbled, waving down a bartender.

Alana darted right next to Zoe while Jared was distracted. “What did you guys do? Did you sign him up for karaoke?” she asked excitedly.

Zoe sipped her drink to keep from cracking up while Evan stepped into save them. “You'll have to wait and see,” he said with an unusual mischievous glint in his eye.

Alana gasped. “You did! Oh my god, I can't wait,” she said, then thought for a moment, “we have to make sure he has at least two more drinks before his time comes,” she offered.

It was Zoe’s turn to gasp. “Shots! Let's do shots!” she exclaimed.

“Once I finish this, I'm in,” Jared said from a little ways away, raising his already half empty glass.

Zoe and Alana grinned at each other, while Evan sighed and shook his head, amused.

Without any warning or fanfare, Zoe knocked back the rest of her drink and slammed the glass on the counter, startling a bartender standing in front of her. “Hey, can we get four tequila shots over here?” she asked him. The staff member merely nodded and scurried off to fulfill the request.

“Four? I can't-” Evan started.

“Shhhh, we're going to trick Jared into having two, relax,” Zoe said, pressing a finger to her boyfriend’s lips.

Alana grinned deviously and Evan simply shook his head at the two girls’ antics. Moments later, the shots were brought over to them on a tray. Jared immediately abandoned the conversation he was having with a stranger and flew over to his friends.

“Hell yeah! Can I say a toast to you all?” he said as the shots were all divvied out, Evan begrudgingly taking one, deciding one shot wouldn't be a bad thing.

“Sure, go ahead,” Alana responded, raising her tiny glass.

Jared raised his straight in the air and cleared his throat. “Ahem. A toast to our friendship, for being there for each other in times of need. A toast to camaraderie. A toast to love, romantic and platonic, that transcends all our barriers. A toast to our future, and whatever it may hold,” he recited, smiling broadly.

“Wow. That was actually really sweet,” Zoe said, shocked.

Jared grinned. “Also a toast to the fact that I signed Evan and Zoe up for a song from High School Musical while you were all too busy gossiping a second ago. Cheers!” he added quickly, clinking his glass against the others and downing his shot. Both Evan and Zoe were left in complete still shock while Alana was barely holding in laughter. Jared made no such attempt to hide how much he enjoyed their disbelief.

“You did not,” Zoe said simply, murder in her eyes.

The only response was a cackle from Jared. “You're starting to make me feel guilty about doing this,” he said in between side-splitting laughter.

“Oh my god you really did,” she responded, setting down her shot glass and rubbing her temples.

“You know, we could just leave before we’re up,” Evan suggested.

Zoe looked up at him, agape. “Evan, sweetie, that would make us losers. And we’re a lot of things, but we are not losers. So the obvious answer is I'm gonna get as drunk as I legally can to ease the pain of whatever the fuck we’re about to have to do, and if Jared is still under the legal limit, you're going to get as drunk as you possibly can and we’ll make him drive,” she said, completely seriously.

“I've only had one drink! Knock yourself out, Ev,” Alana offered quickly.

Evan sighed and took a seat beside his girlfriend at the bar. “I guess I've no other option, huh,” he said as Zoe put in an order for two more double shots.

“Nope!” Jared said gleefully, sipping a drink that none of them knew the origin of.

The trio went about normal conversation and drinking while Alana watched them with a variety of amused expressions playing across her face. Jared had at least one more drink and Evan was halfway through catching up with the others when the emcee for the night called out “Jared Kleinman, Jared Kleinman to the stage please.”

Jared froze in place. “You did not,” he said murderously.

Zoe leaned her head on one of her hands and grinned broadly. “Yes we did,” she retorted.

The bespectacled man quickly downed the rest of his drink, slammed his glass on the counter, wiped his mouth, and dramatically began to make his way to the stage. Zoe led the group in loudly clapping and cheering as Jared stepped up to the microphone, leading others around the bar to cheer as well.

He adjusted the mic to be his height, then saw the song on the monitor and began cackling.

“This one goes out to Evan Hansen, thanks for signing me up for this you fucking dickweed,” Jared called, pointing in Evan’s direction. The other man turned bright pink at his friend’s drunk teasing, but everything was quickly forgotten when the song began.

“Hi hi, I'm your weather girl,” the introduction started, Jared batting his eyelashes and raising his voice a few octaves. The entire bar was rolling with laughter as he continued singing with a completely straight face and never dropping his act.

“Get it, Jared!” Zoe screamed right before the chorus after downing another shot.

“Can't wait to see you up here next, you bi- It's raining men! Hallelujah, it's raining men!” Jared tried to call back before having to go back to singing.

Zoe laughed so hard she almost fell out of her stool, Evan catching her and helping her back onto it. “Okayokayokay, one more drink and I'll be good to go,” she said, speech slightly slurred.

“Sure you haven't had enou-” Evan started, but he was too late and another beer was being poured for her. Alana simply glanced over and grinned at him mischievously.

Jared finally reached the end of the song and was met with raucous applause. “Thank you! I'll be here all night! But I think my friends are next, you're gonna love those sonsobitches,” he screamed into the mic, the amount of alcohol he'd ingested finally becoming apparent.

He began making his way back over to his friend's until the emcee called the next names. “Zoe Murphy and Evan Hansen to the stage, please.”

Jared reached the counter and cackled. “Have fun up there,” he said, still laughing.

“You…you too,” Zoe mumbled, her own drunkenness becoming apparent as she attempted to slide off her stool. Evan eventually picked her up off of it and set her down gently, taking her hand and helping to guide her up to the stage through the crowd. A second mic was brought out and placed close to the first.

“You sure you're good to do this?” Evan asked, unsure as he helped her up onto the stage.

“I could do anything right now!” Zoe exclaimed, louder than was necessary.

“Whatever you say,” her boyfriend said, amused, adjusting her mic to be level with her.

The song title rolled onto the screen, causing Zoe to gasp. “Babe! It's The Start of Something New!” she said, frantically and excitedly pointing.

Evan was suddenly hit with the realization that he had only heard the song once before when his friends had forced him to watch the movie it came from several months ago.

“Babebabebabe, you start,” Zoe said, swatting at Evan’s arm as the words began to appear on the teleprompter.

“Living in my own world, didn't understand, that anything can happen when you take a chance,” Evan began singing, not knowing the rhythm, style, or key, so he winced at how disastrous his attempt was.

It was worth it when he looked over at Zoe and saw the giant grin on her face as she started singing. “I never believed in what I couldn't see, I never opened my heart,” she started, then unexpectedly smacking Evan on the arm again.

“You're supposed to sing the ‘ooh’s,” she whispered fiercely.

“Oh! Uh, ‘ooh’,” Evan tried to quickly remedy.

Zoe nodded approvingly before continuing to sing her part. At this point, Jared was already sobbing from how much he was laughing at the scene unfolding before him, and Alana was simply trying to make sure he didn't fall and break something from how hard he was laughing.

Evan and Zoe kept singing, the girl doing surprisingly well for her level of intoxication, and the boy doing surprisingly poorly based on the fact that he was stumbling around in the dark. Both were enjoying the experience however, Evan getting his enjoyment from the joy that Zoe was radiating.

Before anyone in the moment realized, it was over, and Evan was trying desperately to catch Zoe as she was close to falling off the stage. The bar exploded in probably mostly sarcastic applause as he steadied her, then carefully guided her back down.

The pair navigated towards their friend's once more, Zoe triumphantly pumping her arms in the air as they got closer to them.

“We did it! Suck it, Kleinman,” she yelled, speech slurring slightly.

Jared laughed. “Oh my god, that was fantastic for so many reasons. I'm glad I have such good ideas,” he said, standing up to clap Evan on the back.

“I want a hug too!” Zoe whined, pouting as Alana helped her sit down on a bar stool.

“Wait wait wait, I got a video of the best parts,” Jared said, pulling out his phone.

“Oh my god, we don't need to relive it just yet,” Alana protested.

“Please don't share that anywhere…” Evan weakly countered.

While the three were talking, Zoe suddenly burst into tears, unprompted. Evan quickly moved to wrap his arms around her shoulders. “Babe, are you okay?” he murmured in her ear.

“My life's just like High School Musical!” she exclaimed, a new wave of tears rushing down.

Jared burst out laughing, but Alana and Evan responded with concern.

“Why do you say that? And…why is that a bad thing?” Alana asked apprehensively. Evan only nodded encouragingly.

“I mean…I found the love of my life in the worst way possible, like Troy and Gabriella,” Zoe started, in between sniffles.

“Is a New Years party in Albuquerque really comparable to-” Evan started, being cut off by his girlfriend. t

“And then it’s like…our opportunities at a future we're sabotaged by everyone around us! But you know what? We endured. We endured, because I love him and god, did you guys know he has abs of steel? He has fucking abs of steel! And his di-” Zoe continued, being cut off by Evan instead.

“Okay! So, yes. I uh, I love you,” he blurted out awkwardly, trying to divert the conversation.

Zoe craned up and planted a sloppy kiss on Evan’s jaw. “I love you too, babe. And I was gonna say that you have a big dick,” she finished, hiccuping.

Evan instantly turned bright red. “Maybe…maybe we should head back home. I think she's at her limit,” he said, slightly embarrassed.

Jared leaned on the counter, cupping his chin. “Oh no, I think I want to hear a lot more personal stories from her,” he said, almost falling off of his stool from scooting to close.

“Oh, we can hear them in the car, but I agree that poor Zoe needs to go home,” Alana said, grabbing Jared’s arm to help support him.

Evan had flagged down a bartender and was paying the group tab as Jared was trying to protest that he was definitely sober enough to drive them all back home. Thankfully, his argument got nowhere and 7 minutes of struggling to find the car later, Alana was comfortably nestled in the driver’s seat with Jared at her right and Evan and Zoe in the backseat.

“What a night, huh?” Alana said, breaking the silence in the car once they were out of the strip mall parking lot.

“I think I'm a little drunk,” Zoe said innocently.

Jared laughed so hard he almost choked on his own spit. “Just a little,” he affirmed.

Zoe leaned over to Evan and attempted to whisper into his ear, but was speaking loud enough that every passenger in the car could hear. “Hey, Ev, I'm gonna fuck your brains out when we get home,” she said, kissing him gently on the cheek.

Alana nearly swerved the car off the road, and poor Jared hadn't recovered from his last bout of laughter and doubled over, unable to take in any air. Evan turned his characteristic shade of bright red.

“Maybe we should just get some sleep, baby,” he suggested in a slightly softer whisper, draping an arm around Zoe’s shoulders and kissing her on the head.

“What fun is that, though?” Jared chimed in.

“Jared!” Alana yelped, exasperated.

The four friends continued on their journey home in various states of a drunken haze with only one thing clear; Evan needed to watch High School Musical again. 

**Author's Note:**

> As always, please leave a comment with your thoughts, opinions, and critiscm of the fic!! Also rly if you guys have any Zoevan ideas you want to see written out, leave that below too!! I'm running low on inspiration but I rly want to get back into writing them more again. I hope you all enjoyed, can't wait to hear from you all!! <3


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